Pleasure Point event to benefit surfer Marciano “Chango” Cruz

Share this:

Marciano “Chango” Cruz smiles while coordinating the painting of a mural on Sommerfeld Avenue in 2015. A fundraiser will be held Saturday to help pay Cruz’s medical bills after he required brain surgery after getting surfer’s ear. (Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

Asking for help can be the hardest thing to do. Especially for someone who is constantly putting the needs of others above themselves. Be it pride, fear or embarrassment, many unsung heroes fail to reach out for a helping hand when they need it most.

Pleasure Point local Marciano “Chango” Cruz has put his head down for decades, working tirelessly to provide for his children as well as the local community. He’s been heavily involved in positive programs for kids in Santa Cruz County. He has worked closely with the Resource Center for Nonviolence as well as La Liga de Comunidad, a soccer group that serves the local Latino community. Now, this giving soul needs support, and the community has stepped up in a big way to provide help.

Cruz was in Malibu last month for a club longboard event when the life he fought so hard for nearly slipped through his fingers. For years, Cruz had been suffering from the bane of all cold-water surfers, surfer’s ear, an affliction in which the inner ear begins to grow additional bone after repeated exposure to cold water and wind. As the ear closes up, it can trap the seawater which can lead to infections. Without insurance, Cruz did what most surfers do — wear plugs, and try to ignore the pain.

His ear had been hurting in the weeks leading up to the trip, yet now the pain was becoming more and more debilitating. This worried his friends, who insisted that he should seek medical attention, and his spirit was hearing a similar voice.

“A voice kept telling me to go home or I would die. I listened and left at two in the morning,” Cruz recalls.

He jumped on the freeway, north toward Santa Cruz, propelled by the desire to get home to see his family. As he drove, the pain was intensifying, and he found himself nearly drifting off the road several times. Desperate to make it to his family, yet fearing an accident, he pulled over in Paso Robles, parked, and began to drift off amidst the blinding pain. Someone saw him sleeping, knocked on his door and told him to get going.

“When I opened my eyes, I looked up to see who it was, but there was no one around,” Cruz remembers.

“That’s when I knew that voice that I’d been hearing was God. If I didn’t hear that voice, I wouldn’t be here today.”

This divine intervention came just in time; Cruz had a brain infection that doctors say would have killed him had he not awaken and made the rest of the drive back to Santa Cruz.

Cruz’s son, Anthony, rushed his suffering father to the hospital. After some initial X-rays of his head, the doctor found that his advanced case of surfer’s ear had essentially trapped a significant amount of ocean water in his inner ear, becoming infected and entering the brain.

Unable to perform the operation, the local doctor knew that Cruz would have to see a brain surgeon quickly, or he could die. Because of the complications of his infection, he couldn’t be airlifted to the emergency surgeon at Stanford, so an ambulance was called and whisked him away. After being put under, it was decided the danger the surfer’s ear had put him in needed to be addressed, requiring the brain surgeon to work in tandem with another surgeon, who chipped away at the bony growth while the brain surgeon performed his magic.

After hours of intense surgery, the skillful doctor had saved Cruz’s life, yet just narrowly. He would have an intense recovery, as a pic line was placed into his arm to administer intravenous antibiotics, and he would need a long time to rehabilitate. He had survived, yet under the cold fluorescent light above his hospital bed, a new wave of terror coursed through his thoughts: How would he support his family with the giant hospital and surgery expenses?

“When I got out of the hospital, I was feeling very down. I felt like all these people who I surf with had abandoned me, and this made me feel bitter, alone and hopeless,” recalls Cruz of this painful time.

These fears and feelings of helplessness began to pass as Cruz regained his health and had more time to think about how fortunate he was to have survived. During this transition, his friends and family banded together to make this horrible experience easier for the wounded wave wrangler with financial support and medical assistance.

Darshan Gooch, another Pleasure Point local, has formed a close bond with Cruz over the years and regards his fellow surfer in high regard.

“Bridging social boundaries and connecting others through the diverse communities he operates in, Marciano has made a positive impact around him,” Gooch said. “As a man who continues to give openly from his heart and ask for nothing in return, I am hoping this event will give us a platform to support and uplift his good work and spirit in his time of need.”

Even with this outpouring of support, it was clear that his battle would be a long and strenuous one. Sensing these hardships, those close to Cruz began setting up a benefit surf contest to aide Cruz in his time of need, which helped him realize that he was much less alone than he thought when he first got home from his surgery.

“Now hundreds and hundreds of people are showing their love for me, accepting me for who I am, coming together to help me. Without this community, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d like people to come to (the) contest to see how the surf community can come together, to see the power of love, the way it can heal.”

Headed by the Big Stick Surf Association, The Aloha Benefit, held this Saturday at Pleasure Point, will help raise funds for Cruz’s medical expenses and other financial struggles that became worse due to his inability to work.

Tom Radich, with the Big Stick Surfing Association, has worked closely with Gooch and Pastor Danny Bennett of Santa Cruz Hope Church to organize the benefit, and he is more than happy to bring people together to pay tribute.

“Sometimes, I’ll be out surfing a little frustrated with the crowd, not in a great mood, and out paddles Marciano with a huge smile and big hello,” Radich said. “His uplifting spirit reminds me how lucky we are to live and be part of this wonderful community. I often wonder how someone who has been through so much in life can still have so much stoke. That is truly inspirational.”

If You Go

The Pleasure Point Aloha Benefit Contest

When: Saturday, 8 a.m.

Where: The Point

Additional information: Click here and here for additional info on The Aloha Benefit, and here for Cruz’s GoFundMe.